The Fire Time Podcast

When a customer makes the effort to make it all the way to your showroom floor, you better understand why they are standing in front of you. Understanding the customer's intentions without bias, and then finding a polite way to eventually ask for the sale is the key that so many salespeople are missing out on. When selling fireplaces, BTU's aren't everything—the experience the product will deliver to the customer is. 

In today's episode - the debut of Season 5 - we sit down with Bill Lentz, the author of The Art of Sales (a series of articles that was very influential in shaping how Tim has gone about his career in the hearth industry).

We are not trying to make the customer a fireplace salesperson, we are trying to show them how it could make their lives better is a big takeaway listeners will gain from this episode. The content matter discussed can be applied to all aspects of life beyond the showroom floor! Not being afraid of being assertive and asking the customer for the sale is a daunting task at first, and it will sometimes result in failure. However, getting knocked down is key to finding your true self, and not being afraid of posing more inquisitive questions toward customers down the road. 

Click here to read "The Art of Sales" & "The Heart of Sales" by Bill Lentz.

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime

Click here to join The Fire Time Network

Every season of this podcast wraps with a Q & A episode—and this is no different!

In today's conversation, Tim Reed and Grant Falco (Falco's | Spokane, WA) sit down to answer questions like:

• How do you actually execute on the information you learn in a podcast?
• What is the best way to spend my time if not all of my accounts want to get better?
• Should a salesperson be a project manager or is that a role for a different team member?

Don't miss this season finale episode!

Most hearth companies today are drowning in the rising costs of advertising with no one to help them. No matter what you do, you can’t seem to get the results that you want while, all the while, advertisement costs continue to skyrocket. In today's episode, we close our series on the eight departments of a winning hearth business by talking with Grant Falco (Owner, Falco's) about marketing.

The truth is that marketing should be a faucet to your customers that you control, not a blackhole that your dollars go into never to be seen again. If this sounds like the world you’ve been living in then this episode could change the trajectory of your business.

In this conversation, learn:

Don’t go another day flushing away your hard earned dollars because you don’t have a marketing strategy in place. Rather, take control of your marketing, create a message that’s compelling to your customers, and grow your company like never before.

Falco's #SpokaneRises Video: https://youtu.be/o2RnZShihoY

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime

Click here to join The Fire Time Network

Every retailer in our industry is looking for ways to grow sales. While it can be useful to think about marketing spends and sales initiatives, improving your showroom is low hanging fruit that offers a huge payoff.

In today's conversation, we sit down with Grant Falco (Owner, Falco's) to talk about what a showroom needs to have in order to succeed. 

Don't miss this!

Most showrooms in our industry are setting customers up for indecision and confusion. This conversation will cover:

Taking your showroom to the next level will set you apart from everyone else and help your customers feel secure buying from you. It can seem intimidating, but like anything, consistent effort over time will move the needle.

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime

Click here to join The Fire Time Network

Want to know the secret to running a smooth business? Have a great support staff! Many business owners today are running around with a fire extinguisher looking for the next blaze to put out rather than working on the things needed to grow the business. Building up your Support Staff is the key to streamlining your systems and processes and allowing leaders to get above the fray and see what's really going on.

In today's conversation, we sit down with Grant Falco (Owner, Falco's) to iron out exactly what's needed to create a top tier support staff.

In this conversation learn:

• How the support staff is critical to getting a handle on what's going on in your business
• What kinds of metrics you need the support staff to collect for you on a weekly basis
• Why it's worth it to invest in a non-revenue generating department

Don't miss this conversation... Understanding how to structure your support staff is what helps build a business that you can steer—instead of being dragged behind.

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime

Click here to join The Fire Time Network

Everyone is looking for an edge today, but the truth is that many retailers in our industry are running so fast that the little things (that make them money) are being left behind. In today's episode, we address department number 4 (of 8) on your route to building a winning hearth company: Grounds & Warehouse.

Now, most business leaders don't think of Grounds & Warehouse as a department in their company (alongside of Sales and Marketing), but they couldn't be more wrong. We sat down with Grant Falco (Falco's | Spokane, WA) to lay out a roadmap to turn this into a major profit center.

In this conversation:

Stop losing on the first impression with your customers! Taking advantage of this system will set you up to win longterm and run a business with way less stress longterm.

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime

Click here to join The Fire Time Network

If you're looking to grow your business in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, you've got to be taking service seriously. For many companies, service is a necessary evil that they offer with gritted teeth (because they feel that they have to), while for others, it's a profit center that leads to repeat business and customers for life. 

What's the difference? Intentionality.

In today's conversation, we sit down with Grant Falco (Falco's | Spokane, WA) to dive deep on what it takes to grow a winning service department. 

In this episode:

• Understand why many companies fail when it comes to running a service department
• Learn the first three metrics to track on your service scoreboard
• Settle the debate on charging per hour or flat rate

Don't sleep on this conversation—now more than ever service is what will keep businesses afloat in the coming months. You can transform your service calls from nails on a chalkboard to marketing that pays you by putting these principles in place.

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime

Click here to join The Fire Time Network

Companies in our industry are losing money every day because of second trips and call backs on installations. You know it shouldn’t be this hard, but it seems to happen over and over again. In today's episode, we sat down with Grant Falco (Owner, Falco's) to discuss what it takes to build out an installation department that takes your company to the next level. If this sounds like your world then this conversation could change everything.

In this episode:

• Learn to set up the processes that your business needs to eliminate wasted return trips on installations
• Understand how to grow a culture of accountability with your team that is bigger than any one person
• Learn how to structure regular meetings so no job falls through the cracks

Stop bleeding money with return trip after return trip, rather, take control of your team, raise the quality of your work, blow your customer’s expectations out of the water, and make a ton of money along the way.

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime

Click here to join The Fire Time Network

In today's market it's absolutely critical that you have an effective sales team. The problem is that most companies don't provide their team the tools needed to succeed and, as a result, the team stays "busy" doing things that aren't relevant to their job (which is selling). In today's conversation, we sit down with Grant Falco (Owner, Falco's | Spokane, WA) to talk about the tools that every leader needs to provide their sales team in order for them to win.

In this conversation:

• Learn why creating a sales process helps a team member sell more than ever before
• Understand how to keep a team focused on their best opportunities with a weekly game plan
• Learn to master a cadence of regular meetings that keep your team fixed on the prize

The success of your sales team should never be left to the whims of someone's natural skillset. Instead, providing structure for a team to thrive within will unlock potential in your team members that you never knew was there and empower them to get the results that they have always wanted.

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime

Everyone is looking to build a winning business, but the question is where do you start? Over the next eight episodes of the podcast, Tim Reed and Grant Falco will outline how to build out the departments necessary to running a winning hearth company—and the first department is Leadership. Most companies fail when it comes to motivating their team members because they don't have an effective leadership model for their business.

In this conversation:

Stop running your company on auto-pilot! Now, more than ever, your team members need leaders to follow. Putting this content to use is the start of building an incredible business that leads the way during a time of crisis.

To support The Fire Time Podcast financially, check out our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/itsfiretime